Black Friday Starts Now

Kodak Cine-Cameras, 1937

In the days right after Thanksgiving we are cajoled, implored, and generally bombarded with opportunities to buy the latest and greatest high tech gadgets so that our loved ones will have a truly Merry Christmas.

This Kodak flyer from 1937 seems like the opening trickle of a subsequent flood of future Black Friday madness. “Let’s get ourselves a Real Gift this Christmas” says Father, and modern Mother agrees, “A Home Movie Camera! I’ve wanted one for years!”

They’re splurging for a real luxury, as Kodak’s cheapest 8mm camera and projector cost $61 in 1937, which is well over $1000 in current currency. (And on the high end, Kodak’s best home-movie 16mm gear that year would run you nearly $3000 in modern money.)

And in any case, that was only the initial price: film and processing cost several dollars each time you completed a 3 minute roll. So choose your shots wisely, dad. Still, you can draw a pretty straight line from this to this winter’s new iPhones and Galaxy devices.

The headline on the inside spread also seems prescient and modern. “‘Look Daddy… Thats Me!’ And it’s you, and you, and you…” Because that’s what everything from picture taking to black Friday is all about now, isn’t it? It’s You, and you, and you.